This is a really terrific trailer. We’ve seen a few other trailers for Richard Ayoade‘s second film as a director, The Double, and the last one we highlighted made the film’s comic personality pretty apparent. But this new trailer really pushes the combination of comedy and an underlying sense of weird unease.

Jesse Eisenberg plays Simon, a regular timid guy whose company hires James, a new worker who looks exactly like Simon. The new guy may look just like Simon but he’s everything the shy guy is not: confident, insistent, and charming. That leads to an inevitable conflict, but this trailer suggests it doesn’t play out as you expect it might. Read More »

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It looks like doppelgangers, weirdly, are going to be one of the micro-trends of 2014. Earlier this month we got The Pretty One, an indie dramedy about a young woman who assumes her dead twin sister’s identity, and next month we’re getting Denis Villeneuve’s Enemy, starring Jake Gyllenhaal trying to track down a man who looks just like him.

Further down on the calendar is The Double, Richard Ayoade‘s adaptation of the Fyodor Dostoevsky novella. Jesse Eisenberg stars as both milquetoast Simon, who is horrified to discover that his exact likeness / polar opposite, the brash, charismatic James, is taking over his life.

The first few trailers did a great job of getting across the nightmarish vibe of the tale, but the newest one offers a better sense of the plot, as well as a bigger dose of Ayoade’s humor and wit. Check it out after the jump.

Richard Ayoade has come a long way from the days when he was known primarily to Brit comedy nerds as ubergeek Maurice Moss from The IT Crowd. He wowed TIFF in 2010 with his feature directing debut Submarine, and returned to the festival earlier this year to earn still more buzz with his sophomore effort, The Double.

Based on the novella by Fyodor Dostoevsky, the surreal comedy follows meek, overlooked office worker Simon James (Jesse Eisenberg), whose life is complicated by the appearance of his doppelganger James Simon (also Eisenberg). Identical to Simon in every way, only far more confident, charismatic, and ruthless, James swoops in and starts taking everything Simon wants but can’t have: the esteem of his colleagues, the affections of his office crush (Mia Wasikowska), and so on.

Five years ago, Richard Ayoade was mostly familiar to American audiences, if he was familiar at all, as ubernerd Maurice Moss from The IT Crowd. Since his 2010 directorial debut Submarine, however, he’s also known as… well, okay, he’s still the guy from The IT Crowd, but now people might also know him as a promising young filmmaker with style and wit to spare.

This year, he’s back with his sophomore directorial effort, The Double. A loose adaptation of the novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, this dark comedy follows a man (Jesse Eisenberg) who is driven to insanity by the sudden appearance of his doppelganger (also Eisenberg). Think of it as Black Swan with less ballet and more soul-crushing office work, perhaps. Or that episode of Buffy where Xander gets split in two.

Mia Wasikowska, Wallace Shawn, and Submarine actors Noah Taylor and Yasmin Paige also star. Watch the first trailer after the jump.

With only two completed feature films under its belt, Laika’s quickly proving itself to be one of the smartest, most creative animation studios working today. Coraline and ParaNorman were wonderful stop-motion pictures gentle enough for kids, but sharp enough for adults. Now an early teaser indicates that their third release, The Boxtrolls, is shaping up to be the same way.

Based on a book by Alan Snow, the film follows a community of monsters living under the streets of Cheesebridge. Despite their fearsome reputation among humans, the Boxtrolls are actually quite sweet, and are in fact raising abandoned orphan (voiced by Isaac Hempstead-Wright, a.k.a. Bran from Game of Thrones) as one of their own. Watch the first brief teaser after the jump.

Animation house Laika only has two completed features to its name, but thanks to the strength of those two outings (Coraline and ParaNorman), it’s already earned a reputation for unusually smart, creative family fare. Now they’re joining forces with Focus Features a third time for The Boxtrolls, an adaptation of Alan Snow‘s book Here Be Monsters!

With just two days til its July 27 premiere, The Watch director Akiva Schaffer has pushed out one last red-band trailer. Or maybe it’s a blooper reel. However you want to categorize it, it may actually be one of the funnier bits of marketing that have come out for the movie.

Ben Stiller, Jonah Hill, Vince Vaughn, and Richard Ayoade star as a quartet of suburban guys whose neighborhood watch group is mostly just an excuse for them to get out of the house and engage in some quality male bonding. (That’s the case for three of the guys, at least.)

When they discover that aliens are secretly taking over their town, however, it falls upon this bumbling group to save the day. Watch the (NSFW for language) video after the jump.

Even if you’ve long since outgrown summer vacation, there’s just something about warmer weather that makes it tempting to put aside the heavy, thought-provoking stuff and look for a good, lighthearted laugh instead. If you’re curious what the upcoming season has in store for you on that front, hit the jump to check out new posters for The Dictator, Rock of Ages, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Neighborhood Watch.